2022 - Camera Study - Byron, CA

Recently I decided to get back into photography, inspired perhaps by my recent trip and looking at my old photos. I upgraded my camera to a used Sony Alpha a7 II, which is a middle-of-the-road pro-amateur mirrorless camera, kind of a compromise but way better than my old one. I wanted a place to explore the camera versus my phone, and I had heard about this abandoned hot springs and building out in Byron, CA about 45 minutes away, so I went there this morning and took photos with both the camera and the phone.

My two main takeaways are that the phone tries too hard to make pictures look amazing and oversaturates the colors and second that the zoom lenses are indispensable and something the phone can’t reproduce. I couldn’t go up to the building so I had to take pictures from about a tenth of a mile away and the phone just can’t do it well. I’ll post in the captions below which is which.

Zoom lens with the Sony Alpha

iPhone, from the same spot.

Sony Alpha, with my full frame non-zoom lens

Sony Alpha

iPhone

Sony Alpha

Sony Alpha

Sony Alpha

2022 - All My Posts On A Big Map

I’ve had this going for a while, but because many of you likely haven’t seen it, I have a way to view all my biking-related posts on one big geographical map. It is honestly very cool and I’m proud of it so if you’re interested in seeing my travels evolve over the years, check it out!

http://www.adamhunter.net/blog_posts.html

2022 - Riding to the End - outside Livermore, CA - 53 miles

Today I rode 53 miles in a sort of solidarity to the team, which is still out there riding and did 66 miles today. I stopped and turned around because it was incredibly hot and I reached a literal sign that said “End” and I figured, why argue with the sign. I’m trying to explore further and further East, and was trying to get to a town called Byron which apparently has some cool abandoned buildings, but I didn’t make it. I think next time I will start further East, like from Livermore itself (this time I started from Danville).

The Iron Horse trail was under construction, which was annoying.

Day 30/31 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Derry, NH

Well, my trip has come to an end. I write this post while actually sitting in a Denny’s in Oakland, CA, but this post will be about the last two days of the trip - I may write a longer “tying up the loose ends” style post in a while. The ride into Derry was really nice. I was in a bit of a hurry because I had a 4pm flight to catch out of Manchester, NH but I rode the first part of the day with Ted, David and Dick and enjoyed taking pictures with them at the “Live Free or Die” New Hampshire sign. The weather was supposed to be incredibly hot but it actually ended up holding off on the heat until we got into camp. By the time I flew to Philly though it was 95 degrees, and I can’t say I’m going to miss that!

My last rest stop was in the parking lot of a Walmart, which somehow seemed appropriate. David B remarked on the absurdity of the whole thing, hanging out in a parking lot in Walmart in New Hampshire. It’s such a weird hobby.

We ended up eating 3 separate times in 36 hours at the same restaurant across the street from the church in Westborough, called Civic. It’s always interesting to me how we go and visit these places but we do it in such an idiosyncratic way. If anybody ever asked me if I’ve been to Westborough, MA I would have to say yes but I really have no idea what the place is like. :). Except that the traffic when I tried to go to the Post Office was incredibly bad. I was glad I was on a bike!

Also we ended up sitting at a Laundromat for a while, which is another thing I only ever do on these trips. It’s such a weird life!

Day 29 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Westborough, MA

On this blog I post a lot of really pretty pictures of things - sites and sights that I visit. Sometimes I post pictures of people; myself, the team, certain folks that get caught in a shot. It may make it appear that all we do is surf around the country on bikes on a pleasure cruise. But today was one of the “other” kind of days. A lot of this trip is a struggle, and some of it is really mundane. If you can’t find fun in the little moments; the camp showers, the rain, the van, putting out the signs and picking them up; then you won’t enjoy these trips. But I hardly ever take pictures of those parts. So today, I drove the rest stop van and it was a challenging day. The weather started out very bad; rainy and cold, a bad combination for cyclists. By the first rest stop it became clear that people were not enjoying themselves, and several of them started to “bail out”. A couple hadn’t even started the day and more started dropping like flies. Out of 19 cyclists, only about 9 or 10 made it to camp on their bikes.

But that’s not to say it was a bad day. Everyone had a good day and there’s nothing but smiles. The warmth of a church or a van feels so much warmer when you’re cold first.

On a personal level, one of the other route leaders Elle got in the van at rest stop 2 and she asked if I wanted to ride so I rode from RS2 to RS3 just so I could say that I was in Rhode Island. Which I was, for about 6 miles. I rode some with Teri again today and then I had a great conversation with Elle in the van on the way to camp.

Day 28 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Windsor Locks, CT

Today was an interesting day.  First of all, it was my first official century for the trip, coming in at 103 miles.  We arrived at camp at about 98 miles but then rode 2 miles to get some ice cream at Tailwind, where I took a picture on a giant novelty airplane.  

We started the day and rode into Connecticut.  When I was a kid, they told us that the reason the roads were so bad in New York was because of the weather, especially the floods and the freeze/thaw cycle.  But that’s obviously bullshit because as soon as we rode into Connecticut the roads improved dramatically.  If we had to do all 100 miles on NY roads it would’ve been a disaster.

We also climbed about 6000 feet.  Hard day.

As you probably have noticed by now, I’ve been sneaking pictures of Ukrainian flags into my various days whenever we see some.  We’ve seen them sprinkled all throughout the ride, but today I saw as many as the rest of the trip put together - over 50 at least.  I’m not sure why, but it’s cool.  As somebody who thinks a lot about the Ukrainian conflict, it’s cool and makes me feel happy about America.

On that note, while there certainly have been some hateful signs; lots of “Lets Go Brandon”, some Trump, even one or two Confederate flags; it’s a lot less than in past years.  I’m sure a lot of that is due to where we were riding, but still, I’ll take it.

This may have been my last day riding and, if so, I’ll take it - it was a good day.

Day 27 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Clinton Corners, NY

There were a few notable things about riding today.  The first is that it was a gorgeous day, weather wise.  The temperature was probably in the high 60s or so, starting out a bit colder and getting warmer throughout the day, slightly overcast but getting sunny.  We rode for a while on a really old-school dirt trail which was hell on my 28mm road tires but I got through it with only a little bit of mud crusted onto my brakes.  That trail opened up onto the rails-to-trails pedestrian skybridge that went over the Hudson near Poughkeepsie and that was one of the coolest, largest and highest pedestrian bridges I’ve ever personally seen, because it used to be a railroad bridge.  Super cool.

I rode today with Teri, who I hadn’t ridden with yet, and she shared her life story with me (too private for the blog) and I gave her some of my patented high-quality life advice.  It was a good reminder, as I’ve had many of, about the power of speaking your truth and being honest.

Then I drove the van for a bit so that Sean could go get his knee checked out.

The terrain and weather is really starting to remind me of being a kid in Buffalo, which is hardly surprising.

Day 26 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Port Jervis, NY

Today was a really old-school day of riding through some fairly serious hills. We followed the Mighty Delaware river up through the border of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, going back and forth across the river and between the states. I rode mostly with Ted and David and we kept a pretty solid pace up some 14% climbs and about 4400 feet of elevation change. Our rest stop was with an alum who brought up some delicious sub sandwiches. All in all it was just a very nice day of riding.

I remarked to one of the folks at dinner that I feel like I finally have all my gear “dialed in”; I’m not looking for new equipment anymore; I have the perfect bike computer, the perfect shifting system, the perfect bike. I do need a new rear tire but that’s about it.

We rode on a few closed streets today, closed because they got washed out, and it was really nice. I realized that was one thing I’d been missing, the ability to just ride along side-by-side and talk to the folks I am riding with; we really couldn’t do that in the Southeast because of the busy roads and small shoulders.

Day 25 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Phillipsburg, NJ

Yesterday was a rest day and it was a nice pleasant day but not too much all that photogenic happened so I’m rolling it in with today. Today I rode the bike and we went about 70 miles up into New Jersey, crossing and then riding along the Delaware River. I rode with Ted an company; David Suriani showed up yesterday, one of Ted’s friends and a really good guy that I know from the UK ride a while back.

We stopped and ate at a Jewish deli that he recommended in Stockton, NJ and I had a delicious Nova Lox sandwich on a bagel. Yum.

The riding is hard now, it is resembling the Trans Am with the rolling hills. If I wasn’t taking every other day off I think it would be really wearing me down. The terrain has started to resemble the area I was born in, exceptionally green and with some rocky hills.

Day 23 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Conshohocken, PA

I drove the rest stop van again today. It was a wet, rainy day and there were a number of logistical challenges but they aren’t particularly interesting to recount. The most remarkable thing about today’s trip is that we rode through Mennonite country. I grew up around the Amish and Mennonites (I honestly don’t know the difference) in Upstate New York so I knew some of what to expect, but it was still really interesting. A lot of what we saw might sound very stereotyped, but it was real and true. For example we saw a number of different clotheslines with an entire family’s worth of clothes swinging in the breeze drying. I saw multiple women in muslin dresses. At one point I had to stop the van on a narrow road because a 4-5 year old boy was looking in the side of the road for his baseball. A buggy came up in the other lane and an older Amish couple started talking to the boy; I couldn’t hear what they said but I assume it was something like “get out of the road”, because he did and I moved on. We stopped at CVS and the owner told me I couldn’t park in the big parking spaces because those were for buggies, and I noticed that they had hitching posts. I also watched a team of four horses plow a field, and a man pulling an automatic hay baler with a pair of horses.

It’s beautiful country; it looks just like a postcard.

Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of great pictures because, as I say, I was stuck in a van. Also the Mennonites aren’t crazy about having you take their picture.

Day 22 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - York, PA

Today I rode, and we did most of the 60 miles on a bike path, an old Rails to Trails path. That means they took an old railroad track and turned it into a bike path, which means they are usually really flat and often dirt or limestone, which this was. It was like riding into a green tunnel, with lots of affluent little semi-rural neighborhoods along the way. Tonight we are back to churches.

I stopped in York at this really amazing old-school video arcade called Timeline Arcade that was obviously a passion project; it had a pretty impressive collection of old school games and some timeless 80s decor including garish neon wall paint and old Nickolodeon clips playing up on the wall. I played some Turtles In Time, a little Tron, and just generally wandered through my childhood. They didn’t have a Pac Man Jr though; that’s my holy grail. I did play the original arcade Punch-Out though; it’s a lot harder than I thought it was.

Day 21 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Glyndon, MD

I rode the van today and there wasn’t much to really talk about. The first part of the day was a bit challenging because the cyclists took a bike path, which of course means that I couldn’t follow them. The standard procedure in that case is to follow them as closely as I could, but that often results in getting lost, so I ended up using Google directions. We got to the volunteer fire station pretty early. We were only about 25-30 minutes drive from where I went to graduate school in Baltimore, but it wasn’t worth it to go all the way there. It ended up being a moot point because the grocery store next door - Santino’s - was amazing and had all the food I miss from the Maryland area. Most important was Black and White cookies, which are actually a cupcake top flattened in the form of. cookie and then frosted half with chocolate and half with vanilla. I also left the gun and took a hand-made canoli. It’s quite possible that I eat too much!

Day 20 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Bethesda, MD

Today might as well be called “Washington, DC” because that’s basically what it was. We had a short day on purpose - only 20 official miles - so we had plenty of time to sightsee in the capital. I still maintain that a bicycle is a great way to be a tourist; you can get a lot of places in a short period of time. Even though we weren’t in a hurry, we managed to visit the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the White House, the Capital, various buildings of the Smithsonian, and the Mall, and also have time to ride around town. We stopped at a food cart run by a very nice Vietnamese lady within sight of the White House and had a great conversation and also the worst hot dog I’ve ever eaten. In the morning we went to Arlington National Cemetery and saw JFK’s grave as well as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and watched the changing of the guard. As a theater geek, I approved of the ceremony.

It was a beautiful sunny day. I was very impressed with D.C. generally and would like to go back some time; I had always heard it was kind of crappy but that wasn’t true at all. It was clean and beautiful and I was particularly impressed with all the crazy architecture. One building that stood out was the Smithsonian Castle, which apparently was the first Smithsonian building and was designed to be Gothic Revival. It looks cool, like it came from Norway or something. Anyway it was a fun day riding, if a bit exhausting in its own way.

Day 19 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Alexandria, VA

Today…was hard. TransAm hard. Rolling hills hard. 95 miles hard. By the end of the day my rear tire was shot, my Garmin was dead, my backup battery was dead, my phone was dying, my butt hurt, my legs were exhausted. We rode rolling hills in the country for the first 50 miles then I got a flat, and after that was suburban Virginia with a lot of traffic and stop lights. After that was the Mount Vernon trail which was theoretically nice but very choppy and busy. The Potomac was very high and flooded out parts of the bike trail. By the time we got to the church we were all done for, but we quickly rallied for some alumni bbq dinner and then drinks at a brewery of course. It ended up being a good and memorable day even though I didn’t take many photos,

Day 18 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - fredericksburg, va

Today was definitely a throw back ride to the TransAm. Riding through the rural roads of Virginia you get a lot of solitude, with a lot of green jungle. The wrinkle this time was that it was very cold all day. But we stayed mostly dry. The rolling hills have started and the ride was challenging but good. I rode with the “fast team” and we were done by 2pm. There wasn’t much to do or much to take pictures of and things were grey anyway - sorry!

Day 16 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Richmond, VA

Ahh…we have finally arrived at the second rest day. Yesterday I did get to ride, and it was an interesting eperience waking up from camping; it’s the first time we did that this trip and everything was harder and soggier than I remembered. But we did get going, and after a short and very nice ferry ride we got to ride about 50 miles of the nicest and smoothest bike path I have ever been on. It’s called the Virginia Capitol Trail and it was gorgeous. They were having some sort of cycling event this weekend actually and so there were more than the usual number of cyclists. Usually with a bike path they seem nice in theory but are actually kind of frustrating to cycle on because of the number of walkers, the number of road intersections and/or the quality of the surface. But in this case it was a blissful dream. Bad weather has been chasing us for the last 3 or 4 days and I raced the rain all day - but I won! Then we got into camp and immediately headed to a great restaurant, then a shower at the local YMCA, a Church dinner and a trip to the local brewery, all of which were fantastic (can you tell my life revolves around food?). I didn’t honestly get to see much of Richmond but that’s OK; I’ve been here before and I’m actually just not all that fascinated by the Civil War, if I’m honest.

Another cool thing about today is that we overlapped the trail for the TransAm. It did bring back memories of that trip, though I did not specifically remember the bike path. But that was 6 years ago. You’ll see a picture below of me next to a route 76 sign; that’s the TransAm.

Also, I had the most amazing fish sandwich from a gas station.

Day 15- Atlantic Coast 2022 - ChippOke Plantation state park

The most notable thing about today is that it is the first and only time that we will truly be camping. It was an easy ride through the rural areas of Virginia which reminded me a lot of the first few weeks of the TransAm and brought back some pleasant memories. I drove the van today so I didn’t get to ride; I did a short jog at the campground instead. An unremarkable today but still a pleasant one and it’s nice to camp once in a while.

Day 14 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Sudbury, NC

Some days on these trips are like yesterday; beautiful journeys complete with togetherness, learning, good and sun. Others are like today: a challenge for the ages. 3 rainstorms, 5 flat tires in my group, 84 miles only to be caught by a tornado 8 miles from camp. And yes I do mean a tornado. We sat on the porch, Wizard of Oz style, and watched shingles come off the man’s roof and a tree lose branches in a driving wind. I came into camp at 6:30 pm with Carla and two other cyclists: filthy, wet, exhausted but happy to be done. Both kinds of days can be fun in their own way; it’s all part of the adventure. But I’m ok if there are no more tornadoes.

Day 13 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Nags Head, Nc

Today was my favorite day of the trip so far. A lot of nice things happened today. We got to stop at a number of interesting destinations, eat some delicious food and have really nice ride. The ride was very easy and slated for only 53 miles so we knew we had plenty of time to stop at different places and so we did. We saw several lighthouses and rode a bit past our destination to see the Wright brothers museum at Kitty Hawk, which was very interesting. I did not know, for example, that after their first flight of 12 seconds they almost immediately performed 3 more the longest of which was 59 seconds. Makes it seem a lot cooler. They also had a replica of the original flyer and a lot more details such ad the story of them building a wind tunnel. We also had Duck Donuts for the first time - amazing. Fresh donuts. And then we had tropical drinks at a tiki bar overlooking the beach. All in all, a very awesome day. Tomorrow I ride another 93 miles.

Day 12 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Buxton, NC

Today we are really, seriously on the Outer Banks. I drove the Rest Stop Van today and it was an interesting chopped-up day because we took two different ferries. We spent about 4 hours total on ferries and the cyclists only did about 40 miles. The Outer Banks is very interesting; it’s basically a set of low sand bars with not much in between, connected by ferry services. In a sense it reminded me of Hawaii. Also, randomly, they have wild ponies. Okracoke is the sandbar in the middle and it’s really a very remote-feeling place, like Molokai. I did the obligatory dipping of the toes in the ocean and got some work done and generally had a lazy day. The day started out stressful because it turned out that due to Covid we needed reservations for the first ferry (and we didn’t have any) so for a moment it looked like I or Sean might be driving 5 hours all the way around the cape; but then they got us on. We ate seafood for lunch and dinner and it was expensive and sort of good but not nearly as tasty as the seafood I get back in Jacksonville. It’s always nice to know that what you already have was the best all along. :)